After a short Christmas and New Year break, we re-grouped for our weekly sessions on 8 January when we started to learn, among other things, a few new wassails. This was in preparation for the Transition Edinburgh South (TES) Wassail at which we had been invited to sing and which took place at the Gracemount walled garden on 17 January 2015. Our singing group, although now independent, has roots in the Transition Edinburgh South community and it was great to re-connect with people there given that we have received a good number of new members over the last year. We had a bonfire, spiced apple juice and people (including little ones) joined us in singing around the fruit trees in the garden.
One of the wassails we sang:
Wassail! Wassail! May the coming year,
Peace and plenty bring, to all who wassail here.
Peace and plenty bring, to all who wassail here.
Drink to the bud and the blossom, drink to the root of the tree,
Drink to the fruit of the summer, wassail, let cider run free.
Fire at the spirit of winter, fire at the spirit of night,
Fire at the spirit of darkness, wassail the bringer of light.
Wassail the silver shilling, wassail the silver moon,
Wassail the silver apple, drink, hail the sign of the sun!
Our singing group leader, singer, songwriter and activist, Penny Stone is holding a singathon to mark International Women’s Day on Saturday 7th March St. John’s Church Hall Princes Street, Edinburgh 15.00 to 23.59. This year is the centenary of the founding of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the oldest international women’s peace organisation in the world. The story of the founding of WILPF is quite amazing, and you will hear about it if you come to the singathon where we will sing 100 songs to celebrate this. Penny will lead most of the singing, which will consist of singalong songs or choruses. The song choices have a range of themes such as: women, peace and freedom. This is a drop-in and out event ( you can come and return throughout the period), there will be cake and refreshments, no charge but donations are welcome. Previous singathons have proved uplifting and fun events. For more information, please click here:
We continue to meet at the Eric Liddell Centre every Thursday from 6.30 to 8.30 p.m. We have no auditions and anyone is welcome to join at any time.
Open Community Singing Group Edinburgh - a community choir for all 